Callaway Golf announced Thursday that it has hired former Nike golf ball designer Hideyuki "Rock" Ishii as its senior director of golf ball research.
Ishii spent the last 20 years with Nike, most recently as its senior director of innovation for golf balls. During that tenure, he oversaw the design of every golf ball the company produced.
Nike announced in August that it would stop producing golf equipment, including golf balls. According to Golf Datatech, Callaway is the fastest-growing major golf ball brand since 2013.
"By further investing in R&D, at a time when we believe others are or will be forced to pull back, we view this as an excellent opportunity to further strengthen our technical position and build for the future," said Callaway president and CEO Chip Brewer.